"Some of my favorite things are now just memories," says journalist and author Frances Dinkelspiel. Her house is perched high above Berkeley, surrounded by luscious greenery. It's hard to remember this was a bleak, charred scar in the aftermath of the 1991 Oakland fire.

Dinkelspiel's first home on the site burned just a year after her family moved in. "We lost everything," she says. "Letters, photos and even the family cat."

Despite that monumental loss, Dinkelspiel, 53, says the tragedy was also strangely cathartic. Rebuilding happened quickly; within two years she was again looking out onto Claremont Canyon from huge picture windows. In the distance, there's a sliver of blue bay. In this new, more modern home, furnishings are sparse; it's evident that here the emphasis is on the life of the mind.

Dinkelspiel, who shares the house with her husband, Gary Wayne, and two daughters, 20 and 17, is an aficionado of the book - stacks are piled everywhere. The author of "Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California," about her great-great-grandfather, a financier who made a huge imprint on California history and founded Wells Fargo Bank, she is working a second book, centering on wine zealots, and a 2005 arson fire in Vallejo that destroyed 4.5 million bottles of wine valued at more than $250 million.

In addition to her book projects, Dinkelspiel is editor and co-founder of Berkeleyside, an independent online news site. Most days she's up early, at her desk by 7, to write and post a steady stream of stories about her beloved town. Dinkelspiel, a veteran reporter for several daily newspapers, and her cohort at Berkeleyside have successfully challenged the thinking that people are finished with news. The site has become a go-to place for more than 100,000 unique visitors each month. (Across the bay, Dinkelspiel's brother, Steve, also an aficionado of local media, is publisher of San Francisco magazine.)

"Berkeley is home to an amazing array of talented and innovative people," she says, lauding the obvious famous ones - Michael Pollan and Alice Waters - but also many community activists who are doing amazing work. Running the site is demanding and relentless, but Dinkelspiel says it's fun. Plus, unlike in the multilayered hierarchy of traditional newspapers, it gives her direct access to making and breaking news.

Not surprisingly, Dinkelspiel's most prized possessions include books and family heirlooms, many of which were elsewhere during the destructive blaze.

"Most of the things I value have a family connection - things accrue value over generations," she says. "The rest of it is just stuff - really, without that history, you could simply swap this for that."

Frances Dinkelspiel's objects

German gong

Why it's prominent: Friends bought it for her 40th birthday to remind her not to be so serious, to tune in to her spiritual side.

And so does it? "I can't find the thing to hit it with, but it does sound nice."

A good gift? "Better than diamond earrings."

Her grandfather's collection of the lark

What's a Lark? A California literary magazine from the late 1800s.

Old school: "I appreciate that he appreciated literature - and they are beautiful."

Old books: "I like books. I read magazines and newspapers on a tablet, but I like to hold a book in my hands."

A shelf of books written by friends

Changing hats: "I used to think of myself as a journalist, but now I've become a writer."

Supportive pals: Dinkelspiel attends a long-standing writers' group and stresses the importance of buying books - especially those written by friends.